The Portland daily press., 1887-09-15
FROM DARKROOM TO PULPIT.
Rev. Sam Small, the Evangelist, at
City Hall.
Mixture of Anecdote and Joke, Pro-
hibition and Politics,
Told in the Way Which Has Made
Thousands Laugh.

Last evening Rev. Sam Small, the noted
evangelist, delivered his celebrated lecture
at City Hall, "From Bar-Room to Pulpit"
There was splendid audience present. and
the points made in the lecture were fully
appreciated and heartily applauded Mr..
Small is man of rather more than medium
height, with dark hair and mobile featu res
and he speaks rapidly, in a strong, distinct
voice that is heard plainly all over the hall.
Rev. Frank 7. Bayley, in a few witty re-
marks, introduced Mr.. Small.
Mr.. Small then spoke as follows:
THE LECTURE.
1t is said that on one occasion there came
into the market-place of one of our far dis
tant eastern countries, a travel-stained
stranger. He moved about listlessly, appar-
emily taking no interest in the events that
were transporting about him. AT last the old
man stopped before booth, in which were
number of song birds in gilded cages, beat
ing their wings against the bars, mute with
the sorrows of Imprisonment. The old man
stood looking at them, and great tears c0urs.
ed down his cheeks as he seemed to sympa-
tbize with them. Suddenly reaching his
hand beneath the folds of his garment. he
purchased one of the cages of songs,vls, and
stepping into the open air threw the door Of
the cage wide open, and set its inmate free.
At first, the poor bird, being dazed by its
sudden release, futtered about helplessly
and without strength, but with renewed
trials and with little assistance it regained
the use of its wings and circled high in the air
and glancing far away caught sight OF its
former mountain home. As the welcome
sight burst upon its vision glad song of
praise burst forth from its breast and swee p
ing along in the melody of freedom it wing
ed its way TO the groves of its birth. One
by one the old man purchased the cages and
released the song birds. One by one the
SOM of the captives, as they caught sight of
their far dis tant home burst forth in rapture,
until, finally the last one had winged its way
towards the mountains. The bystanders
asked, '0ld man why do you do this ?"
Turning to them with joyful radiance in his
face he said, Gentlemen, | was once a
captive myself and know the sweets of
liberty"
!, MT; Small then 1 gave graphic account Of
father a respected citizen and his mother
noble hearted Christian woman. He was
early instructed in religious ways
and came to believe the Christian re-
ligion was implanted in his heart.
of sinful ways, and he kept on the down.
ward road to ruin until he was admitted to
the bar. He became impressed with the
idea that the only way to acquire fame was
himself into theirways and flattered himself,
that, when he chose, he would be able to
turn away from his evil ways after having
become firmly established in politics. He
became a newspaper reporter and continued
in that profession and his life of debauchery
until he went to hear Sam Jones preach at
the tabernacle, September 10, 1885, the meet
ings being held in large tent about fifty
miles from Atlanta, Ga. He went there with
no intention of becoming converted, but
happened to be in remorseful vein and decid-
ed to take his little children out for a pleas
ure trip. The life of debauchery which he
led was depicted with all its disgusting de-
tails which has forced this conclusion upon
his mind:
l say to you out of a bitter expe-
rience of II years which came near being my
eternal ruin that do not believe that the
man lives who can crafty his carnal appe-
tite, inject the slow poison of his desire into
every ,esorpuscle Of his being and then recover
found that when / would have
done it all my powers were dislocated.
Some folks call me a crank: now if / am
crank, thank God for the hour when be-
came crank. We need more cranks in
this country than we have got; that is the
trouble, we have not enough. man out
West bought machine few months ago of
a manufacturer, and it all got out there ap-
pdItubly ia SUOu OIutI, u6 tOOk III OH VI
the box and set it up and fixed it in running
order according to the Illustrations and d.
recti0ns and discovered that something was
lacking. So he telegraphed that tine machine
was there set up, as the cut said, but he
could not use it. you forgot to send the
crank And there are good many insti-
buttons in this country where the machine is
all set up and it looks all right and fair and
it has power enough to move the world, but
it has no crank harnessed up with il to make
If i will foil a biU thing ahouf that
crank business. In the fifteen years that /
was pouring that damnable stuff down my
throat which was debauching my body and
destroying my life and the life of my wife
and writing with a pen OF iron upon the
hearts OF my children horror that would
make the angels weep. there was not one
among the lot of dirty scoundrels that stood
behind the bar to tell me that was crank.
You go into the chambers of Congress and
ask Republican member to take hold of
this prohibition question and push 1t in the
interest of humanity. He will tell you,
please don't bring that matter up now be-
cause the times are not propitious for it just
let it rest for little while and we will come
to that by and by" Why not nowp He
that other side of the chamber, for we just
lost that last Presidential election by
scratch, and you bring this issue in and
we'll lose the next election sure" But you
go over to the Democratic member and ask
llL1 w tdhC udlSt VI IL anu CuuCdtOl ~
make him, and press him and he will SAY.
"Oh, for Gods sake, give us a rest! Don't
endeavor to bring that thing hereP l say,
why not?" He says, why, we only just
won that last Presidential election by
ton in. we win lose the the next 4 one
sure" AndI that Is the reason they
are not in favor of bringing it In, and that is
the reason am in fav0r-of so doing. They
don't want 1t brought into the pulpit; they
IL 10 moral onI WI w
take it to the legislature they say it is a re-
ligious question. The man was about right
who said that the only difference between
the Democratic and Republican parties on
cock -hirum. 1 feel like the preacher in
Georgia who was trying to preach the differ
ence between secret and open sin. He said
secret sin is the straight and narrow way to
perdition, and open sin is the broad path
that, leadeth, to destruction, One of the
brothers said to him, swell, parson, am
going to take to the woods"
So am in fix, as you see, and the best
that can do is to stand and do as | please
and vote every time for the man whom 1
make no promises with any liquor dealers in
this country. l stayed In the Democratic
party as long as could and then got out;
that was the next day after my conversion
been out of it ever since and want to stay
out.
"Oh," you say, certainly this liquor traf-
fic must be dealt with; something must be
DONE" like that meeting that met and re-
solved first that something must be done;
resolved, second. that somebody must do it;
resolved, third. that we don't know what it
is. Well, they say we don't like you
preachers to take hold of it. They say
preachers ought to let this subject alone;
they say they don't want it dragged into the
pulpit Well, you and the devil think the
same way If that is what you think about it.
/ have been invited to join the third party
and have sort of looked into that question.
1t reminds me Of the case Of q colored man
who worked for thirds. We work them
down South on shares, and they work ON
thirds generally. This man worked along,
and it came Christmas time, and man said
to him, Uncle Thomas, how are you COM
ing out this year?" and he said, II come out
just as you see me-"
The man Isaid, Didn't you make good
crop?"
yes, first rate"
SWELL" he said, show do you feel so blue
about it, didn't you come out all right with
that man downsthere?"
WELL" said the darkey, 81 don't know,
tell you. When got the crop all harvested,
down he came with a double horse team and
backed his team up and took it off in two
loads, and there wasn't any third load'
don't want to work where there is not
third load, but where Democrats and Re-
publcans will come down with Dig team
and take it off in two loads.